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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Service might make you cry at How's Your Onion in Derry

After How's Your Onion opened a few years ago, we were regular visitors and appreciated the good food, service and quirky nature of the restaurant. Over the past several months our visits became less frequent because the service had declined considerably. A few weeks ago we decided to give it another try and sadly nothing has changed.
The quirkiness begins the moment you arrive at the restaurant which is located on Route 102 in Derry – from I93 take exit 4 – next to an auto mechanic shop. When you see the sign below you have found the restaurant. Even the name of the restaurant is quirky. Apparently, the owner’s grandfather who would ask the kids “how’s your onion?” and they’d reply “good enough to make you cry”

There is a tiny parking area on the side of the building. Be very careful navigating this area. The slots are very small with concrete blocks to stop you from moving any further and when they are busy it can be frustrating waiting for a space. Make sure you pull up as far as you can near the block to give those trying to back out room. There may not be anything the owners can do but they should try to improve the parking for their customers.

The food here never disappoints. They have the usual breakfast favorites including pancakes, French toast, benedicts and omelets. There are a few other items worth mentioning, the shirred eggs nest which is a combination of eggs, onions and potatoes that is baked and covered with parmesan cheese. In addition, they have their spiked potatoes. These are balls of mashed potatoes that are fried with bacon, cheese and peppers. A beer batter and BBQ chips are used to give these a unique flavor. Served with a bacon ranch dipping sauce, delicious.

On this day I went with my usual, two eggs over medium with home fries, bacon and white toast:

These were all cooked to my liking; the toast was a little underdone. You can get the home fries the onions or without and we recommend with onions.

My wife got a cheese, onion, pepper and mushroom omelet with the same home fries and sourdough toast.

She enjoyed this very much.

With regard to our waitress and the service in general it has been poor. The last three times we were completely forgotten about, one waitress spent half the time chatting with another table while we waited. It is okay to talk to your customers just don't forget about everyone else. In our opinion How's Your Onion needs someone out front managing things and making sure that the service is exceptional. This time was a little better than the last three but not enough to change our mind.

So there you have it, although the food here is very good and the atmosphere is fine the poor service cannot be overlooked.